


Mobian Owls

by Anonymous



Series: A Great Horned Owl [2]
Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Flashbacks, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Major Internal Conflict, Touch-Starved
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-20
Updated: 2020-03-20
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:02:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23230645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: It’s not like Sonic hadn’t run into wild owls on Earth before. He barely ran into them on account of their nocturnal nature. The birds weren't at all like the one he had come to love back on his home planet.He never wanted to run into them again.So to say he was reminded of her when he saw one again was an understatement.
Relationships: Maddie Wachowski/Tom Wachowski
Series: A Great Horned Owl [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1650331
Comments: 3
Kudos: 90
Collections: Anonymous





	Mobian Owls

  
When Sonic wanted to run, he ran.   
  
It was simple for him. No matter what time of day, no matter what mood he was in, if he caught the feeling to run, he took off faster than a jet plane and ran in any direction.  
  
The Wachowskis understood this, but to an extent. They knew it was in Sonic’s nature to run—what else with a crazy fast pulse wouldn’t run? And even so, running was what Sonic did in his spare time before meeting them, right?  
  
Yet, Tom and Maddie were concerned about whether Sonic could get home. He could cover so much ground in a short time. What if he got lost? What if Sonic couldn’t find his way home? He couldn’t ask anyone for help.  
They acknowledged the fact that this concern was a bit unnecessary as Sonic had been living on Earth for ten years. But Sonic was now in their care. They worried a lot about him.  
Maddie brought up the theory that maybe Sonic had homing instincts like carrier pigeons do. It wasn’t the craziest idea ever. Sonic was a blue, speedy little space hedgehog and even he didn’t understand his own powers.  
When Tom brought up the concern, all Sonic said was,  
“Aw, don’t worry! I _always_ know how to get back to Green Hills.“  
  
At first, Sonic didn’t ask for permission to go on a run. After living alone for a decade, Sonic lived on his own schedule and by his own rules, which only consisted of “don’t get caught,” and “never stop running.”  
But it wasn’t until Sonic took a midnight run and came home to Maddie and Tom in complete distress that he started asking for permission, even if it was the middle of the day.   
  
So, Sonic was running.   
  
Dusk was Sonic’s favourite time. Even though the world starts to quiet down, the pretty colours that painted the sky were something that Sonic loved to see.   
Of course, Sonic had plenty more reasons to love dusk now that he was living with Donut Lord and Pretzel Lady.   
Sonic ran without care through the Montana prairies, sometimes stopping to admire the vast sky above him and to keep notice of the occasional tree that dotted the landscape.  
Besides a naturalistic need, running was Sonic’s comfort and way of escape. The feeling of freedom allowed him to forget everything and let it all go.   
The wind hitting his face as he sped through the wide terrain made Sonic feel complete.  
  
Running was Sonic’s oasis.  
  
Coming up ahead, Sonic noticed a tree in his direction. He glanced at the sky above. It was almost sunset. Maddie set a curfew to be back before dark, so Sonic came to a quick stop and, almost comically, geared his leg upwards to turn the opposite direction.   
But before Sonic raced off, he heard the familiar call of a bird.  
  
“Hoo!”  
  
Sonic’s eyes grew wide. Putting his foot down, he turned to see the animal that made the sound.  
An owl was sitting in a tree nearby, ruffling its feathers as it called out again.  
  
“Hoo!”  
  
Adrenaline pumped. And it wasn’t the good adrenaline that Sonic associated with running.  
His body trembled. Looking down at his gloved hands, he felt like they weren’t his, as if he couldn’t believe what he was looking at. They shook intensely.  
 _Longclaw’s wings brushed over Sonic, comforting him as he shook._  
 _“It’s okay, Sonic. It’s just the thunder, saying hello to the lightning.”_  
  
He couldn’t even process what he was feeling.  
There was no thinking for Sonic at that point.   
  
All he did was run.  
  
-  
  
He almost took the door off its hinges.   
  
Yanking the attic stairs, Sonic raced up them and crashed on his beanbag.  
 _Okay. Okay. Okay. Breathe. Breathe, Sonic. Breathe._  
Sonic breathed deeply, making sure he wouldn’t hyperventilate.   
_In, one, two, three, four,_  
 _hold, one, two, three, four,_  
 _out, one, two, three, four._   
His hands still trembled fiercely. Sonic held them close to his body in an attempt to stop them from shaking.   
He looked up to the skylight for comfort. The sunset produced a deep orange colour.   
  
“Hey, Sonic. You okay?”  
Sonic snapped his head in the direction of the voice.  
Tom, in his officer uniform, was standing by the attic stairs.  
Sonic hadn’t even heard him.  
“Oh. Yeah. Yeah, I’m alright,” He lied. He instead concentrated on watching the clouds as they passed by.   
He wanted to say something like, “How’s Maddie?” or, “How was your day?” Just to throw Tom off his trail, but based on his shaking, Sonic knew that he couldn’t convince Tom he was fine.  
 _Everything is normal,_ Sonic told himself.   
  
“Alright, are you still on for movie night?” Tom asked.  
Sonic hesitated for a moment. He refused to look at Tom in an attempt to seem invulnerable. He nodded.   
“Good, ‘cause I think we’re gonna watch Speed again,” Tom mentioned.   
Sonic knew they watched Speed last night, but he brushed it off. He kept thinking about what happened.  
The bird was... so reminiscent of her. It had her horn-like feathers. But the bird was so small. Longclaw towered over Sonic when he was a child, but never intimidated him. _Great wings held the child close as the thunder raged on. “It won’t hurt you, Sonic. I promise.”_  
  
“Thanks, Donut Lord,” Sonic whispered. His mouth acted on its own, pouring out Sonic’s implicit thoughts.  
“For what?”   
Sonic could feel him reaching closer.  
“For letting me stay with you guys. It’s just...”  
Sonic trailed off as he blinked away tears. _What are you doing?_ Sonic thought to himself. _Stop. Stop it._   
“It’s just so nice of you guys to let me into your life, y’know...?” Sonic finished, quickly wiping away some of his tears with his arm. He took in a shaky breath as Tom knelt down next to him.   
“Sonic, hey, it’s alright,” Tom gently said. Sonic turned to look at him. His face was written with worry. Tom put his hands on his shoulders, which made him want to sob.   
“You know you can always tell me anything, right?” Tom murmured.  
  
 _Don’t cry..._ Sonic told himself.  
 _You can’t cry._  
  
Finally caving in, Sonic threw himself into the officer’s arms, burying his head in the crook of Tom’s neck.  
“Sonic, kiddo, it’s okay...” Tom comforted.  
“Just get it all out...”  
  
-  
  
“I went on a run.”   
  
Sonic’s voice was hoarse and raw from crying. He was cradled in Tom’s arms, sitting in his lap quite comfortably. The touch of being held reassured Sonic greatly that he was here, in the present. It was scary that he felt Longclaw’s wings swoop over him, as if he was there in her hut again.   
  
“I just felt the need to, y’know? Maddie said it was okay, so... I ran off somewhere west,” Sonic explained.   
He retracted his run in his mind, seeing the barren prairie with the beautiful sky overhead.  
“I ran until I was near this great stretch of land with trees here and there...”  
Sonic stopped for a moment to catch his thoughts.  
“And then I saw the bird,” Sonic mumbled.  
  
“...What bird?” Tom asked.  
Sonic wracked his brain for the word he remembered reading in a lost book.  
“I think they’re called owls...?” He inflected. “They eat mice and have big eyes.”  
“That’s an owl,” Tom confirmed. “Did it attack you or anything?”  
“No, I was...”   
Sonic took a deep breath. In, one, two, three, four...  
“I was reminded of someone I knew a long time ago.”  
  
Sonic counted his breath for a bit while Tom sat in acknowledging silence.  
It felt so good to let himself be held.  
 _“You know you can always tell me anything, right?”_   
Tom’s words echoed in Sonic’s head.  
It essentially translated for Sonic: _You don’t have to run anymore. I’m here for you._  
His heart stung at the thought.  
Of course, his mind didn’t mean physically running. He loved to do that. Sonic could hardly imagine what it was like to live a life where he couldn’t run at crazy fast speeds. No, he meant emotional running. You don’t have to run away from all your problems.  
  
 _But I should run._  
 _Longclaw died because of you. You put her in harm’s way and you did it again with Tom and Maddie and Eggman. You’ll do it again. You have to keep running._  
  
 _...But I don’t want to._   
  
Sonic was pulled by the two sides of his brain. One was telling him to stop running and finally allow himself to open up, and the other was saying to continue running away from everything and everyone he loves— for their sake of course. The worst part was that he didn’t know which part was rational or not.  
More tears dangerously came close to flowing.   
He shut his eyes. _Why can’t I just—_  
  
Tom sighed, which pulled Sonic out of his thoughts. Hesitantly, Sonic laid his head on Tom’s chest, but it only made the feeling of uneasiness and the comments in his head grow instead of shrink. Sonic could hear Tom’s heartbeat and instead focused his attention on that.  
 _“Why, that’s just my heart beating, Sonic. It beats all the time.” Longclaw swooped one wing over the little toddler, carrying him in the other. He put his head up to Longclaw’s chest to hear it, brushing his hand over the metal of her chest plate._  
Sonic shivered. _Why does everything remind me of her?_  
 _I just want it to stop...!_  
  
“Do you want to...talk about it?”   
Sonic snapped out of his thoughts once more to look up at Tom.   
Tom’s brows knotted with worry, but his eyes were sympathetic.  
 _I want to talk about it so bad._  
Sonic only met his gaze with the floor.  
“I guess.”  
  
“Did this person want your powers...? Like Robotnik did?” Tom cautiously asked.  
“No, they weren’t trying to harm me at all,” Sonic murmured.   
_I hurt her. She didn’t harm me, I harmed her. I killed her. It’s my fault, Tom, it’s all my fault. I don’t want to keep harming people._  
Thankfully, none of his thoughts ever spilt out of his mouth again, as he was now careful to clench his mouth shut when thinking.  
  
Sonic sighed and sat up in his bed, managing to tear himself away from Tom’s embrace.  
  
“Is this about... Longclaw?”   
Sonic shot up. For a moment, all the times he thought about Longclaw since the Robotnik Incident came flooding back to him. Could he have slipped and murmured about Longclaw? Could Tom read his thoughts?  
“Oh. You heard that...?” He whispered, unsure of when he used her name in conversation.  
“Back at the hotel?”  
 _Oh. When he tucked me in._   
Sonic nodded.  
Tom chuckled a bit under his breath. “Your monologue isn’t exactly internal, buddy.”   
  
Sonic blinked at the attempt to lighten up the conversation. He didn’t blame Tom for doing this, of course, but he didn’t feel like being witty at the moment.   
How would he explain his and Longclaw’s relationship?  
He never referred to her as “mom,” but it was very clear to Sonic that that’s exactly what she was. She was my mother.  
 _Adopted mother,_ Sonic internally interjected, whatever part of his brain adding insult to injury.  
 _Right. Adopted mother._   
  
Sonic sighed before saying,  
“She was kind of my adopted mother back on my home planet.”   
  
Silence. It was comfortable, sure, but not comforting. Why was that? Simply because he wasn’t receiving physical affection?   
“She was always so nice to me....” Sonic mumbled, trailing off as he thought about her. The way that she was so gentle and kind with her words, how her feathers were so soft and how she always cheered Sonic up, no matter what.  
It was still hard to imagine that Sonic would never see her again. Ever.  
  
“She told me to keep my powers hidden,” Sonic started, his gaze locked onto his soft bed below him. “Then one day a group of echidnas followed me home... and...”  
  
 _The scream that Longclaw gave as she fell out of the sky was guttural and agonizing._  
  
“Killed her?” Tom murmured softly.  
  
Sonic glanced up at Tom for a second, before looking back down at his feet. He nodded.  
Sighing, Sonic had half a mind to just throw himself into Tom’s arms again and bask in the parental love that Tom gave him. He wanted to, and he was on the verge of doing it, but Sonic couldn’t move anything, no matter how hard he tried.  
  
“Sonic, I’m sorry to hear that.” Tom shifted on the bed for a second before the room returned to the thoughtful silence.  
Sonic’s eyes stung with tears again as he mumbled, “I should be able to get over this, right? It's been years. I should be over it," He blinked away tears and held his head in his hands. _Get over it, Sonic. It’s been ten full years—_  
  
 _“Sonic.”_   
  
Said hedgehog jumped at Tom’s tone. Turning to look at him, the adult’s stern look melted away into sad empathy.  
His arms were held open in a tempting offer.  
Hesitantly, Sonic leaned into the hug, his eyes full of tears which would overflow any second now. Sonic cursed himself for crying but burrowed his face into Tom’s blanket-covered chest.  
"Is this your first time telling anyone about Longclaw? Alien or human?” Tom gently asked, holding Sonic to his chest with his hand, stroking the top of his head ever so softly.   
Sonic could only nod in response, being so overwhelmed with such a strong warmth in his chest.

  
“Don't beat yourself up over this. You've been working through this alone, Sonic. Grief takes a long time, even when you have someone to talk about it with."  
Sonic couldn’t believe what he was hearing, so much so that once he processed the words, tears were already spilling out tenfold.  
Sonic murmured unintelligible words softly as Tom told him everything that he wanted to hear:   
“Maddie and I will always listen to you and be there for you."  
Sonic closed his eyes and smiled wide, even though he was weeping. His chest was bursting with the warm feeling, which he was sure that it was love. _They care about me. They love me. We are a family._ The words would forever repeat in his heart.   
No matter what Sonic thought, no matter how much was going on in his head, Sonic could always turn to Tom and Maddie.   
  
“It feels so good to get that off my chest..." Sonic noted to himself.   
  
After that was more silence, followed by the occasional sniffle. But this time, the silence was comforting. Sure, maybe it was because Sonic was being held. But maybe it was because he wasn’t holding back anymore. It was okay to be vulnerable once in a while.  
Tom continued to hold Sonic tight. The hedgehog felt tired, but also somewhat emotionally refreshed. The warm feeling never faded as they sat in silence. Sonic was eager to get his mind off of the past.  
  
“How about we go downstairs?” Tom said, breaking the silence. “Maddie & Ozzy are probably waiting for us.”  
Sonic smiled, lifting his head from Tom’s chest. He sat up and turned to look at him.  
Tired, yet so incredibly happy to see the hedgehog with a smile.  
'Can we watch Speed again?" Sonic not-so-inadvertently reminded him.  
Tom shook his head, smiling at the kid. “Of course, buddy.”  
Sonic leapt up from the bed, racing to the attic door before nodding towards the doorway, to say, “Come on, they’re waiting.”  
“Go ahead downstairs, I'll be right there.”  
  
The blue blur flew down the stairs before screeching to a stop.  
 _One more thing..._  
Sonic sped back up to his room, hopped on the bed and gave the biggest bear hug a small teenage hedgehog could muster.  
“I love you, Donut Lord,” he quickly whispered before running back downstairs, pretending like the whole experience didn’t faze him. But he didn’t pretend like it didn’t happen either.  
 _No more running. No more denying._  
  
Walking over to the living room, Maddie sat solemnly with Ozzie by her feet. “Sonic,” she gasped once she noticed him standing in the doorway. “You okay?” Her face had worry written all over it.   
“I’ve never been better,” Sonic beamed, rushing over to sit right next to her.  
  
And he was telling the truth.

**Author's Note:**

> yeah i cranked the hurt/comfort feature to ten for this fic lol.   
> hope y’all enjoyed! sorry for getting it to you later than i expected, but i wanted this to be a good, long one!


End file.
